A Little Taste of Home
by Skyebyrd
Summary: Vash Zwingli has decided that, at all costs, he would learn how to make chocolate from the best chocolatier he knew- now if only Femke van Rijn would look at him...
1. Prologue

Hi guys! I only just got into SwissBel a few weeks ago, and my inspiration was from sitting totally bored at the cash register and wishing I worked somewhere else other than a farm store...so I hope you enjoy!

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A twist of a knob, cool bronze surrounded by warm browns, a rush of cold air, a tug on his arm. A sweet scent rushes in, up, over, out. A tinkle; a laugh.

There she is.

Vash's eyes lock immediately onto the sea green window on the far side of the chocolatarie, past the shelves and baskets and mugs, past the shells and wind chimes, past the counter with the short haired blonde flirting with the tall man with a thick accent that sounded Russian, past, even, his own sister's short head as it shot in front of him to look at everything the chocolatarie had to offer; Vash can just barely make her out, scooting in between two other chocolatiers and placing something he can't make out in the oven.

A step towards the counter; quiet, soft. Another. Left, right, left, right. He had to ask her, had to ask her, if he didn't, his mind would explode- he took a big breath in, heart preparing to break out of his chest, his fingers curled together, sweat dripped down his skin-

"Excuse me, miss? May I have a word?" He had said it. The first step. A breath left him, his heart stopped hammering, his hands relaxed.

The blonde looks murderous, and the tall Russian spooks like a small animal, says a hurried goodbye, and leaves, a bag of chocolate shells in hand.

"Seriously, Mr. Zwingli?! _Seriously?! _I have been trying to get Ivan to ask me out for weeks, and right as he was about to, you just had to- ugh!" Amelia Francine Jones, the only person in the entire town who wasn't attending college or raising children or grandchildren, was also the only person who was available as cashier for A Little Taste of Home Chocolatarie. Despite how fortunate is seemed, it was quite the unfortunate decision on Fem- on Miss van Rijn's part. Miss van Rijn. Miss Femke van Rijn.

He begins sweating once more.

"I deeply apologize, Miss Jones, it was a mistake I won't make again." He bows his head slightly; maybe if he's polite, she'll do as he asks. Although that hasn't worked the last seven and a half times he's asked.

"Yeah, damn straight you're sorry. I swear, y'all will be the death of my love life." Amelia grumbles, and Vash's eyebrows come together. "Y'all" generally means there is one person, and it is only him, because Lili is-

"Vash, you aren't getting anything?" A soft voice sounds from his elbow, and Vash turns. Lili is right at his elbow.

"Ah, no, but I need to speak to Miss Jones about something, my sweet." Vash says, kneeling down slightly to reach Lili's height, and he smiles. She loves it when he smiles. Maybe _she_ will too?

His stomach churns.

"Oh, okay, Vash. This is all I want, so, uhm, c-could I…" Lili's voice trails off, and Vash's eyes grow soft. She never was good at asking for things…

"Just put it on the counter and I'll be out as soon as I can. You may go to the park across the street if you wish." Lili's eyes light up and a large smile adorns her features; she places her small bag of chocolate covered coffee beans in front of Amelia, and rushes out the door. Vash watches her as she pauses at the road, looks left, right, and left again, and runs across. Lili turns around and waves at Vash (well, at the storefront, but he knows it's meant for him) and then goes to the swings.

"Jesus, what're you, a stalker or somethin'?" Amelia remarks, ringing up Lili's sweets. Vash looks at her, and answers with "I'm in charge of her. I can't let anything happen to her."

"Uh-huh. That'll be seven and a quarter." Vash tips the money into her outstretched hand. This is it. _The_ question. This is different than before- before, he just needed Amelia's attention. All he needed was to get on her good side, and that hadn't worked. But hopefully, hopefully _this _would.

"I was wondering if I would be allowed to speak with Miss van Rijn?"

Amelia gives him a look.

Vash sighs.

"Of course, of course, I'll come back at a later time, when she isn't as busy. Thank you, and have a good day, Miss Jones." Vash nods, pulling on his hat, and walks out the door.

He should have expected as much.


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi! I've been on vacation for a week, and this plotline has been bugging me for ages, and I wrote up quite a bit, so I hope you like this chapter! I love when I go off, because then I don't have internet and all the time in the world to just write and write without getting distracted~**

**Also: Femke has a huge chain of chocolataries around the world, and is really well-known for her skills. She moved to America and started her first chocolatarie in a relatively small town, and then she blew up, and the town kind of developed, because it needed to look "presentable". Due to the town's sudden development, a lot of the people were forced to move because businesses were moving in, and that's why there's not many people (well, kind of. There are a lot of businesses and thus a lot of people, but hardly anyone actually lives there anymore.) I don't know if I'm going to get around to explaining that in the story, so there you go!**

**Double also: I'm not used to writing in present-tense, so I'm sorry if I slip up a couple of times! If you catch me going into past-tense, could you please point it out to me? Even if that's the only thing you put in the review, it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you~**

**Triple also (last one I swear): Don't expect updates this quickly from me. I love this fic much more than any other I've written, so it's possible I will update quicker than usual, but, my usual updates are once every few months, so I suppose that isn't much to go off on. I'm sorry, and I hope you'll bear with me, as this is a story I really wish to tell. **

Enjoy!

The cool breeze twists and turns through the trees about him, churning the water in the lake in front of him gently, moving his hair back and forth, back and forth. He strokes the barrel of his gun, the one he'd just spent three hours and thirteen minutes cleaning; this is all he ever does when he gets bored. Cleans, cleans, and cleans some more. The house is spick and span from yesterday, and all that remains are the guns- his precious guns.

Lili hates when he gets like this. She is sitting on the other side of the bench, staring out at the lake, watching the fish jump and the birds fly and the bugs flit about. Day after day they stay at home, doing the same thing- watching, waiting, _cleaning_. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. She is so _tired_ of cleaning! She bites her bottom lip, eyebrows coming together as she debates whether or not to say it.

Vash sighs as he feels his little sister wiggling about on the bench next to him.

"What's wrong?" He asks her without looking up; he gets out his cleaning supplies and begins wiping off his gun again. "Do you not feel well?"

"Oh, uh, no, Vash, I feel fine- perfect, actually, it's just that…well…" Lili takes a deep breath. _Come on, now, you can do it… _"I think you should get a job!"

Vash looks at her.

"What do you think I've been trying to do, Lili?" His voice sounds terribly annoyed, so he makes it gentler; Lili is a soft flower, and must be treated as such. "We go into the chocolatarie every day, but Miss Jones refuses to let me see Miss van Rijn. There isn't much I can do until I can see Miss van Rijn, Lili, I'm sorry." Vash returns to cleaning his gun, and Lili knows that is his signal to her to end the conversation.

She takes a deep breath.

"Then I think you should find another line of work."

Shock carries out into every line of Vash's worried-looking face; Lili had never before pursued something so obstinately before. She had always been meek, humble, never overstepping any of the many boundaries that Vash had set for their lives, and yet…

"And why do you think that, Lili?"

And yet he is glad she is doing so.

She needs to come out of her shell more often. If she was eventually going to live by herself and make her way in the world (as much as it pained Vash to think about such things) Lili desperately needed to make herself this obstinate all the time, or else she would wither and crumble.

"Well," She seems surprised that Vash isn't scolding her, like she had thought he would, but she carries on, "Miss Jones clearly doesn't like you very much- and, if she does, she has a funny way of showing it- so I doubt she will let you see Miss van Rijn. And, like you said, you can't get the job until you see Miss van Rijn, so it's just like you're walking around in circles! There's no point to it if you're doing the same thing over and over with the same result, so…" She trails off, her rant almost complete, "so, uhm, either find another line of work or get Miss van Rijn to see you some other way…I suppose…"

Lili fidgets in her seat again.

Vash smiles at her.

"That sounds like a lovely idea, Lili! Thank you." Vash looks out at the lake thoughtfully, his expression taking on a pensive look as the idea formulates through his mind.

"R-really?" Lili stutters. Vash likes her idea! And he is thinking about using it! She smiles brightly. "You're very welcome, Vash!" Like him, she turns her attention back to the lake.

Maybe they would finally stop cleaning this house day after day…it is getting a bit ridiculous.

\\\\\

The next morning turns out to be a stormy one, and Vash considers staying home (Lili hates thunderstorms) but his sister pushes him out of the house, brown jacket on, brown hat on, blue umbrella in hand, and wallet in his pocket.

He shakes his head, laughing to himself and he starts his car. Lili is such a worry-wart sometimes…

As he makes his way toward downtown, which is around forty-five minutes away, the rain only increases, pouring out of the sky in great droves. In truth, he loves the rain- the way it falls down and cleans everything, like Mother Nature's way of saying the world had gotten too dirty and needed a bath. He remembers a time, before he and Lili were on their own and having to take care of themselves, when it rained and rained and rained for nearly a day and a half, and when he had gotten outside, everything was covered in water. He was so young it had come up to about his knees, and on the higher ground the land was slick with mud.

His parents hadn't been too happy to find their precious son coated in mud from head to toe, and, when told to clean himself off, proceeded to slip and slide about the water-coated yard.

By the time Vash reaches downtown, he is pulled back to the present, as he can't even see the road, and pulls into a parking garage five blocks away from A Little Taste of Home Chocolatarie; it will be safer, he decides, to walk to the chocolatarie, even if he gets soaked in the process (getting wet would be much better than crashing, anyway).

Vash exits his car and locks it, turning around to walk away- only to run into a car door being opened.

He gasps slightly, although he isn't in much pain; it's more from shock, than anything.

"Oh, my goodness, sir, I'm so so so so so so sorry, I really didn't mean to do that! Oh, gosh, I really didn't see you! But, then again, I didn't really look, so now I feel even worse, I really should have looked, oh, I'm so sorry!"

Vash can only stare.

"Uhm, sir? Are you okay?" It is the most beautiful woman Vash has ever seen in his entire life.

Miss Femke van Rijn.

"Ah, no, miss, I'm fine, I just…you're Miss van Rijn. I was…a little shocked, is all." Vash says, softly, not wanting his voice to echo about the parking garage like hers had done moments ago. He has only ever heard her voice on the television before, speaking of her world-renowned chocolate, but, _oh_, her voice is so much more beautiful in real life. It lifts up and down in gentle waves, soothing, like the ocean. Her eyes are a startling sea green, and she has on a lovely yellow dress that reminds him of the sun.

Vash notices she hasn't replied yet.

"Miss?"

She looks almost…disappointed.

"Sorry, I just…"She sighs deeply, and those eyes (_those beautiful, gorgeous eyes Vash wants to drown in_) turn down to the pavement, and she shuts her door. "I'm sorry for hitting you with the door, sir." She begins to walk away, and Vash begins to panic. He can't let her go! Not yet! This is exactly what Lili was talking about earlier- to get Miss van Rijn to see him some other way! It was destiny!

"Uh…wait, Miss! Miss van Rijn!" He runs after her, making sure to keep his voice down so the other people in the garage won't hear him, and thus bother her. She turns back to him, her yellow dress flowering around her, settling around gorgeous legs that end in small feet tucked into black heels, and he really should concentrate on what he needs to say or he'll never get this blasted job.

"Yes?" She seems almost annoyed, now, as if she expects him to do something that she will find terribly irritating.

"It's just, I've been trying to get a job at your chocolatarie for a few weeks now- almost a month, even- but Miss Jones always says you're too busy, and I haven't had a chance to speak with you about the matter. I mean, I realize you're a busy woman, and so it doesn't really bother me that you're busy and that I can't speak with you, but my little sister is getting tired of me being so set on this job, you see, so she gave me a kind of ultimatum so to speak, that I should either get the job today or give it up forever, and so I set out today to see if you would see me, and then, I park in this garage on pure chance because I could barely see the road it was raining so hard, and then you were here, and I thought that I just had to talk to you about it right now! And, well…" Vash stops, taking a deep breath, face flushing slightly as he realizes how much he's said in so short a time; he notices Miss van Rijn smiles slightly, chuckling, clearly amused.

Her eyes dance when she laughs.

They really are so beautiful.

"I can't just hire you out of the blue like this, you know." She titters, eyes glinting against the fluorescent lights. "I don't even know if you're a real chocolatier. I ha-" Vash cuts her off, desperate.

"I have my credentials at home, and you can test me any way that you wish, Miss van Rijn, I promise you I will live up to your expectations, whatever they may be. I will do anything you wish me to do, Miss van Rijn." Vash realizes too late that he is acting a bit too desperate, his want for this job exceeding his social boundaries; luckily, Miss van Rijn doesn't seem to be bothered by this. If anything, she is amused, which Vash finds…intriguing. Very, _very_ intriguing.

He wonders what else amuses her, before refocusing on the task at hand as Miss van Rijn continues speaking with him.

"I do realize that, but you are only one of hundreds of others who want to work at my chocolatarie, and, like you said, I only met you by chance. I'm afraid I have to look at every one else before you, and then, and only then, will I consider you for the job. I'm sorry, Mister…" Her voice trails off as she searches for the name he never gave her.

"Zwingli. Vash Zwingli." He tries to keep sadness from tingeing his tone, but he doesn't think he succeeds very well. He can practically see how he must sound; like a little school boy whose ice cream was just smashed into the dirt by the playground bully. "I understand, Miss van Rijn, but I'm afraid you won't be able to consider me at all. Like I said, my little sister's ultimatum was final: either today or never." Vash smiles a small smile, and puts his hat back on his head, his conversation nearly over. "It truly was a pleasure to meet you, anyway, Miss van Rijn. Have a pleasant day." He tips his hat, and turns right back around, his steps almost completely silent from the thundering rain echoing throughout the garage.

As he is about to put his key into the lock of his car, he barely makes out the sound of heels on pavement, and a gentle voice asking him to wait a moment, please. Vash turns around, and smiles calmly at Miss van Rijn, telling her his attention shall not be diverted.

"At…well, you came all this way to take to me, so…at least have lunch with me?" She asks hesitantly, her voice faltering as she asks a complete stranger to eat with her. She hasn't a clue where they will go, or what will happen (she doesn't even know why she had asked in the first place), just that she doesn't want to part with this man just yet. There's…something about him that interests her. She wants to know why he would base his life off of his sister's whims, and why he so desperately wants to work for her, or why this specific chocolatarie; she owned almost eighty of them nationwide, and another fourty worldwide, five of them in her Belgian home, and one run by her brother in Amsterdam.

She wants to know why he is so polite, and shy.

Vash's eyes widen at the inquiry; _lunch_? With Miss van Rijn? The Miss Femke van Rijn, who had single-handedly turned the chocolate world upside down with her revolutionary recipes and ideas; how she could see a person's favorite flavor just by speaking with them for a while.

"I think I can make the time."

**I've always thought Lili would be the more worrisome of the two, whereas Vash is just protective, and only over Lili (and Femke, but that's not until later, shhh) **

**Inspiration for Femke's dress came from here (what self promo? I don't see one!): ** skyebyrd. tumblr post/ 28979575226

**although this is the artist (they had deleted the picture): ** www. pixiv member .php? id= 1227395

**Also: I'm stealing a little bit from the movie Chocolat (if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it, it's lovely). The main character is able to tell someone's favorite flavor (or type, i.e.: chocolate shells as opposed to chocolate puffs), and how it can help them (think of her as the chocolate-wielding therapist you always wished you had). Femke can do that as well, except only rarely, as she is always working and never has time for customers like she used to, when it was just her and her brother at the store. **

**Review, and tell me how you think I'm doing so far! **


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